Nativ Firsts

The past week has been chock full of shechechiyanus and beginnings. I am so excited that new things are happening, and I feel like a meerkat looking excitedly from one direction to another because I want to take it all in at once. Allow me to explain the excitement (also, if you haven't picked up on this: capital letters mean I speaking really, really loudly, so just think about that as you read on):

Monday was a regularly lengthy day and I embarrassed myself in Talmud probably more than I ever have in any class by continuously repeating the opposite of the right answer for about five minutes (the opposite of the right answer is worse than a wrong answer), but its conclusion was worth all ten hours I spent at school.... WE WON IN FOOTBALL! It is our first win, out of three games, and we were just ecstatic. Stasia, Adina, and Laura all scored points, and we won by only one point! It was such a celebration! I played center for a few plays and tried my best to contribute, and even though I didn’t contribute all that much, it felt GREAT to be part of a winning team. Especially a win that we really worked hard for and deserved. It made us happy. I racewalked home with Rachel because we were all spun up about the game and we made great time and we swished our tushies in rapid motion because it’s fun.

On Tuesday, I had Art History and Hebrew in the morning, and then I did the undoable! I MADE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING!!!!!! The story is, they don’t sell buttercream frosting in the entire State of Israel and it was starting to affect my focus in class. I thought about the sugary, creamy texture on my tongue far more than can be considered a normal level, and it was seriously getting to be a problem. Now, the first part of this challenge was the grocery shopping, as I found a few consistent recipes easily. Sugar is a cognate, but I don’t know what confectioners sugar is in English let alone Hebrew! There were several kind souls in the grocery store who helped me identify the proper sugar packets and butter sticks (which, just to be confusing, are not sticks here, but more cubical rectangular prisms), and I found vanilla and milk by myself. I called Elkana and Shosh to help with metric conversions, since the recipes called for ounces instead of grams, and although they helped me, I didn’t pay too much attention to the conversion factors myself and got kind of mixed up later.

This brings me to the second part of the challenge: mixing the correct ratio of ingredients together in the right order using the right utensils and creating something that would resemble frosting. I ended up melting the butter a bit too much and realizing that I should have decanted a bit too late, not really measuring the vanilla or milk in any concrete way (I have a spoon but I still can’t keep the difference between a teaspoon and tablespoon straight) and then the sugar was pretty much just a guess and check effort. By the time it was done, the texture somewhat resembled buttercream frosting, it was definitely vanilla flavored, and it was a lot of butter and sugar. So I ate it, I loved it, I dreamed about it, and I tried to feed it to other people but apparently it was unfit for human consumption...I guess it falls into the “only a mother could love” category.

Tuesday at 5pm we tried out our new Chevruta Talmud study group. For the first few weeks of the semester, Adina and I studied together and we had such beautiful chemistry that people would probably pay money to watch us interact. Probably. Anyway, Rachel and Joshy wanted in on the Talmudic love affair, so we made room and joined forces for one MEGA CHEVRUTA. Seffi sat in on it as well because it occurred in his room, and I asked him to read the first chapter of Beware of God so I could talk to him about it, which we haven’t done yet but hopefully will soon, and you should read it (it’s a collection of short-but actually, short!- stories and you can read the first one here by scrolling down: http://www.amazon.ca/Beware-God-Stories-Shalom-Auslander/dp/product-description/0743264576 which I strongly recommend you do. It’s disturbing, and the rest of the book only gets worse, and I don’t understand a lot of it, but I feel like it’s worth trying to understand even if I don’t get very far). Anyway, our first meeting was a success, and we learned all about prayer and blessings and we covered so many of the topics we went over in class the next day.

After mega chevruta, Erev Nativ took a bizarre turn when JEWS FOR JESUS came to visit! A weird looking man wearing a Jesus t-shirt under a suit who couldn’t pronounce Hebrew very well talked to us for an hour and offended us by saying he would pray for us to accept the Jewish Messiah Yeshua in our hearts. He was charismatic and engaging though, and it was the first 100% awake Erev Nativ (all 80 Nativers were on high alert the whole time!) of the year. He was quoting Isaiah and saying that the Jewish Bible predicted “Yeshua’s” coming, that he would be born of a virgin and that he would have holes bored into him. We were just confused and upset and sooo riled up by the time he left.

Yossi said that a rabbi would now be coming to talk to us about we just heard, and there was a collective sigh of relief which quickly turned into shouts and gasps as the same man walked back in wearing a shirt and tie looking like a proper human being!!! Turns out, we were punked, and he wasn’t actually a Messianic Jew! He is an Orthodox Rabbi who specializes in teaching college age kids not to get sucked in my this craziness. We went over strategies of cult converters and how to defend ourselves. Everyone left happy, and our collective mind had totally been blown.

Wednesday was another long day, and then I went to Jewish Educator Training when I got home, and I liked it! The idea is that kids learn better when they are doing something active or playing an educational game, a premise with which I think most people would agree, but in order to learn how to teach games, you must PLAY the games! How fun! We just played Hebrew School games for two hours. It was great.

After JET, I finished my first college paper. My report on the failures of the Oslo Accords (researching resulted in tears twice-not because the work was frustrating but because it was so deeply sad to me that the peace process disintegrated over the years the way it did, and thinking about how things could have been different, and the good intentions everyone had at the beginning) was a perfect ten pages, and I proof read the whole thing even though I didn’t feel like it, and I printed and stapled and felt very proud of myself. It isn’t the longest or most impressive paper I’ve ever written, but I view it as an extra achievement because I am in Israel where I am legal, where I live in the same building with my best friends, and where there are sooo many better things to do than write a ten page paper.

On one of my breaks during the paper writing process, I was previewing 30 seconds of different Third Eye Blind songs on iTunes as usual, and I came across Bonfire. This was great. Most Third Eye Blind songs have been around for a while and although they feed my soul, they don’t excite me in the new-song kind of way. But Bonfire does, and I’ve been listening to it on repeat, either on the computer or in my head, ever since. “If nothing else I am myself/That's all I have to give/Everything's changing now.” Poetry. I’m telling you.

On Thursday, I woke up lazily and went to school in time to turn in my paper, and Aaron’s paper, to the Lady. I had a two hour break before our extra Hebrew Class, so I took my camera, the big one that feels like an extension of my left hand after two years of obsessively photographing Brighton High School for yearbook, and I found everything beautiful about Hebrew U. There is A LOT of beauty there, and it took the full two hours. I ran around like a scavenger hunt and found all the secret beautiful things there, like hidden balconies and a giant amphitheater.

We got home from school just in time for dinner on Thursday night,

and right after that I went for a great run. It had been on my to-do

list for far too long. I ended my run where the boys were playing

basketball, so I joined the crowd of spectators and did a bit of Air

Alert 3, a tenth grade track throwback routine that includes jumps

and squats. Tensions ran high at the Nativ Basketball Association, and

not even my soothing presence could keep the players from going at

each others' throats. I was glad that Nativ girls all play on the same

team for football.

After basketball, I got dressed up and went out with friends. We

always whine about wanting to go dancing somewhere fun but we

never go dancing. I still had a lot of fun though, and we made up our

own dance floor in various areas in and around the bar we frequent

most. Adina even got up the courage to play dj for a little bit! Fun times.

Friday morning I woke up, consulted with Debbie and Rachel, packed

a backpack based on the aforementioned consultation, ate lunch,

grabbed some apples for the road, bought a weekend's worth of food

at the supermarket and the shuk (a kilo of rugalach, a challah, pb&j,

lemonade, and cold cuts), and then we shoved our way onto a bus

headed for Haifa.

The bus took a really long time, although I was in a deep sleep for

most of it. Adina was meeting us in Haifa because she had a family

gathering earlier in the day, but she got there several hours before

us and she was so alone and so American and so pathetic sounding on

the phone that we couldn't wait to reunite with her. A taxi driver

told us, once we got off the bus next to a deserted station (because

Shabbat was starting soon) that we could walk to our hostel and that

it was just up the road. Too bad he didn't tell us which road, and

that we didn't think to ask. It took a really long time and the help

of many patient people to get us to the right place, and we were

so tired and anxious to arrive. Tears of joy were shed when we

entered room 25 at the beautiful youth hostel, hidden from public

view and far away from any distinguishing street signs.

Friday night was spent reading, talking, laughing, Bananagramming,

and trying to eat dinner over a period of two hours, failing, and

finishing our cold cut and challah sandwiches in about ten minutes.

I went to bed sobbing as I read the first 100 pages of A Thousand

Splendid Suns, and to the sound of crazy teenagers next door

listening to the loudest and most obnoxious music ever created

by man.

Saturday morning, we rose (almost) with the sun for a hearty

breakfast at the hostel. We could see the beach clearly

from our high perch and it was an invigorating sight in the

early hours of the day.

We had already decided we wanted to walk around the city

so we stopped at the main desk to ask for a map and some

advice. The advice was: take a taxi. This did not suit us at all,

and we studied the map. True, we would have to walk around

and over a mountain, true, it would take hours, and true,

there might not be sidewalks. BRING IT ON!

We left at 9:45 and walked on a sidewalk along a highway for

a long time. It was very hot and sunny. We were almost

discouraged. Finally, we reached a turn that brought us into

residential neighborhoods and restored our strength. We took

breaks along the way, stopping at a playground to enjoy a teeter

totter and stalk Israeli children. A little more than two hours

later, we arrived at the gate to the Bahai Gardens. It was

beautiful. We stayed there for about twenty minutes to marvel

at the harmonious combination of man and God's creations, and

to gaze out at the sea beyond, dotted with sailboats and barges.

It was perfect.

Lunch occurred in a cat filled park on a low bench. Two pb&j's

for everyone, some pretzels, some lemonade, some chocolate

tea biscuits, and we were off again! Our walk home was a

different route, and it took us through some beautiful and

interesting neighborhoods. Haifa is a really incredibly gorgeous

city, and very clean from what we saw--and we saw a lot of it.

A screen shot of our 10.2 mile hike around the city is

pictured below.

This post is to-be-continued...Beit Midrash calls!

PS. I had formatting issues, I apologize.

PPS. Title cred goes to Adina! She understands

my desire for overarching themes <3